Puzzles are well known toys and games. Knob puzzles are designed for very young children from ages one to three years. The pieces are relatively large, and each piece has attached to it a knob or handle to facilitate handling by the young children. The pieces typically fit within a frame with an appropriately-shaped cut out portion. The pieces have gentle curves so that they touch along adjacent curvilinear portions, but are very simple to place down in and remove from the frame. The pieces are usually designed with graphics so that each piece represents a portion of an overall scene which is displayed when the entire puzzle is put together.
Older children and adults have sufficient manual dexterity to master jigsaw puzzles. The puzzle pieces are usually cut from relatively thin cardboard, and are interlocking so that they can stay together without the need for a frame as used in the knob puzzles. Because the pieces interlock, each piece must be pushed into place in to one or more adjacent puzzle pieces. Much of the challenge associated with jigsaw puzzles relates to the fact that each piece carries only a very small portion of the overall scene made up by the entire puzzle.
Both the knob puzzles and jigsaw puzzles are stimulating toy products. Each of these products, however, has only a single use--that of a puzzle that must be put together either within a pre-formed frame or on a horizontal surface such as a table top. As these toys offer virtually no flexibility, they are not good creativity developers.